Healthcare

*Disclaimer: This is an opinion and these views do not necessarily reflect the views of the entire newspaper staff.

By Ben

Government controlled healthcare, or a socialist medicare system, sounds good in theory: all citizens get access to healthcare regardless of their socioeconomic background. Medical care has become increasingly expensive and many are unable to afford it. The market driven care system creates a dilemma. We have the ability to choose from various doctors, medicines, and hospitals because our medical market is so profit driven; however, we lose that choice if we give into government controlled healthcare. Yes, healthcare will be available to everyone nationwide, but that doesn’t mean we will have it when we need it as we will have to wait long periods of time for any care according to The Hill. Medical innovators will no longer have the motivation to create the “next best thing”, like a universal flu vaccine that kills all forms and mutations of the virus, something we are currently trying to develop. When we pay our doctors and scientists minimum salaries without incentives, they will lose a significant percentage of motivation to innovate as claimed by The Hill. Additionally, supporters of this system have re-marketed this service to sound better to consumers. While most Americans would fear a socialist medical system, a “Medicare for all” system might not sound as bad according to Investopedia.

With government controlled healthcare, all of our medicines will become the bare minimum; instead of receiving medicine that treats our illness, the government will give us a cheaper alternative that only masks the symptoms so that we just feel better. When the government monopolizes our healthcare, they benefit from the cheapest option and raising taxes as found in The Hill. And with a fixed, low salary for medical professionals, the quality of our doctors will plummet as cited in Investopedia. Without the incentive to be the best doctor and get the most clients, they won’t care because they know how much money they will be receiving, regardless of the quality of their care and quantity of patients treated. This could even result in a scarcity of medical professionals The Washington Post argues. Take Canada, for example. Canada is currently using this system and their healthcare quality is much below standard for a modern nation as cited in The Toronto Sun, a Canadian media source. They are also facing an extreme scarcity of medical professionals The Toronto Sun reports. Patients in need of care are having to wait long periods of time: weeks if not months, to get below-average treatment as claimed by The Toronto Sun. Imagine waiting three days for a diagnosis and treatment of a simple broken arm, which only takes only a few hours right now in America. The wait time is atrocious, let alone how agonizing it would be to wait that long in immense pain. If you doubt this reality, I encourage you to read this Canadian news article from the Toronto Sun that speaks about this issue from the Canadian perspective while also presenting the facts. These are only some of the underlying problems with this ideology. Government controlled healthcare sounds good in theory, but it is ultimately detrimental to ourselves and the country overall.